Darrell Barry and Common Non-Sense

Hello! Congressman Shuler's Office.

2012-01-13T14:01:00.000-05:00

I overheard a telephone conversation this morning between my wife and a representative at Heath Shuler's office that puts current politics in clear perspective for me. Let me preface this by telling you what led up to this call. Food Lion is a southeastern chain of grocery stores started in Salisbury, NC, and after seeing a brief news item about the closing of 113 stores, a quick search on the 'net revealed they are no longer "local" but owned by a huge super corporation; Delhaize Group International headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Wow! How would you stop them closing any "local" USA store???

Right now, any closing of any business in the USA is distressing in these hard economic times, but the loss of our small Food Lion in our small town is particularly distressing because that will leave us with only TWO grocery stores anywhere near us; both "Superstores" with miles of aisles and sky-high prices; both especially difficult for older citizens to use simply because of their high prices and their huge size. Closing 113 Delhaize "units" in our country will literally put thousands of people out of work, including the friendly older people who work at our local store. My wife decided to call Representative Heath Shuler's office to see if there was any way he could help the stores in our state stay open, whether through tax incentives or some other government business assistance program. The phone is a speaker phone and as a woman answered I listened as my wife started explaining her concern about losing our local grocery store, losing jobs, hardships on Senior Citizens, when the woman on the other end of the phone interrupted her in a curt tone to ask why she was calling -- she needed to call that store and complain to them. My wife explained that the local store was being closed by an international super corporation based in Belgium. . . she was then interrupted again and told she needed to call the local town council or county commissioners. Again, my wife explained it was a "global conglomerate" that was closing USA "units" and she thought maybe Representative Shuler would consider looking into it and . . . The woman once again interrupted to say this had nothing to do with the Federal government, so my wife asked, "Well, don't they have to pay Federal taxes or tariffs and couldn't tax incentives be offered to at least keep the rural stores open..." Again, she was interrupted with a curt, "This has nothing to do with the Federal Government!" At that point, my wife asked, "Well aren't you people interested in creating jobs or keeping jobs here in the USA? At our local store they actually hire senior citizens . . ." She was cut off once again and told there was nothing "this office" could do. My wife got so mad she could only spit out, "Oh, excuse me, I thought I was calling my Democratic Representative, let me just hang up and call the Republicans!"

If I had the chance, I would have asked the representative of our duly-elected Representative if she had ever heard of Solyndra? Does billions of dollars spent bailing out General Motors or AIG ring any bells? Then I would have said you need not answer because these are rhetorical questions that obviously have nothing to do with Heath Shuler. Thanks for opening my eyes about how the Democrats really feel about saving jobs and helping Senior Citizens . . . I have to go now and call the Republicans; I know they're interesting in saving jobs and creating jobs and getting our economy out of the toilet. Good-by, have a wonderful day, SEE YOU AT THE NEXT ELECTION!

Man, I'm proud of my wife and I only wish more taxpayers would get involved and start speaking up That's what we all need to do! Got a question, got a concern? Call your elected officials, all of them from Buncombe County to Raleigh to Washington DC and warn the bums, especially Bum # 1, that you've had enough and you will see them at the next election. We'll see all the bums OUT the door!

2012-01-09T13:25:00.001-05:00

I recently read a report of the growing number of Christians being slaughtered in Muslim-majority nations. Sadly, this is not new. This kind of terrorist-bigotry has been going on for centuries. In our own country, we have been seeing a slow-motion form of slaughter of all our Christian traditions from standard USA-support of Israel to the replacement of "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays." Our politically correct Liberals are trying to transform the practice of Christianity in our country into something to laugh about. It is so sad that even a football hero such as Tim Tebow is being targeted and ridiculed for his courageous display of religious fervor on the football field.

Even far-right religious leaders are falling into the Liberal's trap by ridiculing Mitt Romney as a member of a "cult" because he is Mormon! This is a man of faith being ridiculed by other men of faith. Unbelievable! At least he is not an anti-American Muslim such as we have in our own White House. And pretty soon the only religion that will NOT be ridiculed is Islam! And the whole agenda of dumbing down our public school students include "acceptance" of atheism. Isn't that where we've been heading? All little steps along the way; no more prayer in public schools; no more "one nation under Gob" in our Pledge of Allegiance -- and NO more Pledge of Allegiance altogether, and any display of the American Flag has also been included in the dumbing down America agenda. For young students, let's face it, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have replaced other heroes such as Billy Graham and Mother Teresa.
Young people actually are not taught ethics, neither work nor moral ethics, and they are certainly not being taught any Christian values anymore -- our young kids can NOT even sing Christmas carols in our schools anymore! Never mind that our students -- on our tax dollar! -- are being taught to accept homosexuality as "normal diversity" -- they are being taught to accept the notion that our government -- not their grandparents faith in God -- will take care of them. Students now think our tax dollars and our Big Government should give them everything from cradle to grave; free housing, free college, free medical care and free phones. Sadly, our tax-supported school system is turning out lazy bums unwilling to work, unwilling to dream big, unable to even want to succeed in a free republic. And, sadly, they cannot save us from the Marxist path our current leaders have put us on. What we need now is a strong majority of good Americans willing to stand up and speak out in defense of our work ethic, our Christian traditions, our faith in God, and our FREE republic. What we need are a few good statesmen in Washington DC willing to stand up and fight for what is right, fight Barack Obama and his minions and get our nation back its feet and restore us to the greatness that our Christian nation once enjoyed.
If we ever needed CHANGE, we need it NOW.

The Sedition Act is back.

2011-12-01T12:13:00.001-05:00

In this year of our Lord, 2011, we have a "new" Sedition Act --

Thanks to McCain, Graham, Levin of the Senate (and despite a terrific speech for OUR rights under the Constitution from Senator Rand Paul) we now have a new, updated Sedition Act flying under the guise of the National Defense Authorization Act, fiscal year 2012, that gives our erstwhile "acting" president Barack Hussein Obama unlimited discretionary powers to deploy OUR military against OUR citizens. All under the fears and threats of terrorist attacks. Barack can now hold and detain ANY citizen of the USA anywhere in the world including here in the good old USA for suspected terrorist or anti-government activities. Suspected. That's the key word. In effect, all our judicial rights under the law are now in the hands of . . . you guessed, it: Barack Hussein Obama and/or Eric Holden.

McCain. What were you thinking? Lindsey. Say it ain't so. And, Carl Levin big old Liberal Democrat that you are; shame on you. Shame on all of you. All of you must have slept through American History 101:

The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to interfere with the war effort or with military recruitment or to aid a nation at war with the U.S. Wartime violence on the part of local groups of citizens, sometimes mobs or vigilantes, persuaded some lawmakers that the law was inadequate. In their view the country was witnessing instances public disorder that represented the public's own attempt to punish unpopular speech in light of the government's inability to do so. Amendments to enhance the government's authority under the Espionage Act would prevent mobs from doing what the government could not.

The Sedition Act of 1918 enacted May 16, 1918) was an Act of Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. One historian of American civil liberties has called it "the nation's most extreme anti-speech legislation."
It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for 5 to 20 years. The act also allowed the Postmaster General to refuse to deliver mail that met those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. It applied only to times "when the United States is in war." It was repealed on December 13, 1920
One historian reports that "some fifteen hundred prosecutions were carried out under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, resulting in more than a thousand convictions." Court decisions do not use the shorthand term Sedition Act, but the correct legal term for the law, the Espionage Act, whether as originally enacted or as amended in 1918.
There was considerable opposition in the Senate, almost entirely from Republicans like Henry Cabot Lodge and Hiram Johnson, the former speaking in defense of free speech and the latter assailing the administration for failing to use the laws already in place. Former president Theodore Roosevelt voiced opposition as well. President Wilson and his Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory viewed the bill as a political compromise. They hoped to avoid hearings that would embarrass the administration for its failure to prosecute offensive speech. They also feared other proposals that would have withdrawn prosecutorial authority from the Justice Department and placed it in the War Department, creating a sort of civilian court-martial process of questionable constitutionality. The final vote for passage was 48 to 26 in the Senate and 293 to 1 in the House of Representatives with the sole dissenting vote in the House cast by Meyer London of New York.

With the act rendered inoperative by the end of hostilities, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer waged a public campaign, not unrelated to his own campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, in favor of a peacetime version of the Sedition Act. He sent a circular outlining his rationale to newspaper editors in January 1919, citing the dangerous foreign-language press and radical attempts to create unrest in African American communities. He testified in favor of such a law in early June 1920. At one point Congress had more than 70 versions of proposed language and amendments for such a bill, but it took no action on the controversial proposal during the campaign year of 1920. After a court decision later in June cited Palmer's anti-radical campaign for its abuse of power, the conservative Christian Science Monitor found itself unable to support him any more, writing on June 25, 1920: "What appeared to be an excess of radicalism...was certainly met with...an excess of suppression." The Alien Registration Act of 1940 was the first American peacetime sedition act.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Sedition Act in Abrams v. United States (1919) Subsequent Supreme Court decisions, such as Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969, make it unlikely that similar legislation would be considered constitutional today.
Congress repealed the Sedition Act on December 13, 1920.

Please take the time to watch the entire video of the Rand Paul address to the Senate trying to block the McCain amendment which I find very very scary. This not only bends the Constitution, it breaks it. Please write and call your representatives. Your very freedom is at stake, believe me, this is only the beginning. Once this train gets rolling, we won't be able to stop it.

Congress needs to repeal the Sedition Act of 2012

(AKA The McCain amendment to NDDA 2012)

Thanks to Gary who alerted me to this. Check out his site, it's great.
http://www.freedomisknowledge.com/meltingpot/usatforkintheroad.html

THE ENTITLEMENT GENERATION

2011-11-24T13:08:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK (AP) — During the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement that is demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

In my opinion, the heaviest financial burden has fallen upon us -- the already over-burdened taxpayers of the USA! It is our law enforcement agencies who have been burdened with trying to keep the mobs under control and less dangerous to local businesses and innocent bystanders. Obviously, the costs have escalated in New York City and Oakland, CA., where the mobs have been the most violent.

The AP gathered figures from government agencies in 18 cities with active protests and focused on costs from Sept. 17 through Nov. 15, the day protesters were evicted from New York City’s Zuccotti Park.

According to Jim Nolte (biggovernment.com), the "AP survey did not attempt to tally the price of all protests but provides a glimpse into costs to cities large and small. Broken down city by city, the numbers are more or less in line with the cost of policing major public events and emergencies. In Los Angeles, for example, the Michael Jackson memorial concert cost the city $1.4 million. And Atlanta spent several million dollars after a major snow storm this year. But the price of all these mob-protests is rising by the day along with taxpayer ire."

Nolte goes on to note: "This 'cocktail napkin' report only looked at 18 cities, and only at direct costs that are easily documented. A more complete number would need to tally sanitation costs, economic losses suffered by local businesses, lost tax revenue from the lower economic activity and the lost productivity from workers who have suffered longer commutes to and from work, to name just a few. Still, the report goes a long way in showing that the Occupy crowd really is the new Entitlement Generation. They can have their drum circles, but we are left to pick up the tab.

"The plan is a simple one. The path to Obama’s second term requires that enough voters forget that our current economic woes are the fault of a failed President who enjoyed two years of having every single item on his wish-list passed by Congress. And so the idea was to create Occupy in order to give the MSM (mainstream media) the cover they desired to spend every single day up until the election talking about greed and income inequality in order to blame both for the stagnant economy. The hope was that by repeating this message incessantly, enough voters could be convinced that Wall Street, and by extension, evil Republicans, were to blame for our chronic unemployment, record deficits, and stillborn economic growth. President Obama who?

"Fortunately for America, this plan has not only failed miserably it has backfired completely. Thanks to the rise of New Media and our unwillingness to let the MSM’s lies, bias, and cover ups stand for even one more day, Occupy is in its death throes and might take the President and Democratic party down with it. First and foremost, we uncovered the lie that Occupy was grassroots and then we exposed every Occupy rape, poop, death, overdose, old woman thrown down the stairs, attack on a police officer, and public acts of masturbation. In the process, public opinion turned against the Occupiers and as a result these Leftists have started doing what the Left always does when they lose … have a tantrum.

"The president also compares the protesters to the Tea Party. 'In some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party.' I must have missed the part where the Tea Party people were crapping on the street . . ." "Obama says. "Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them.” (Duh!)

"Don’t let the MSM get away with lying to you. Obama and the Democrats are all on record endorsing, embracing, encouraging and emboldening Occupy Wall Street." http://biggovernment.com/jimnolte/2011/10/28/occupywallstreet-the-rap-sheet-so-far/

In closing I ask, have you ever heard an occupier tell you what they really want? I haven't. You have to ask what it would take to satisfy them? They need to go home. They need to get a job, occupy a desk somewhere. But, they do not want to work. No, the Entitlement Generation want US to work so they can SHARE our wealth. And, we do! We work and pay taxes. If only the Occupy Mob would share our Work Ethic -- and pay taxes like we do!

This information was garnered from AP and from Big Government.com

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

2011-11-21T10:49:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and a special note of thanks to all of the wonderful Veterans. Thank you for your service to this greatest of all countries.

Darrell and Freda

Occupy the Work Place: Get a job!

2011-11-08T19:19:00.000-05:00

First the good news:
"Obama embarks on a nine-day trip to Hawaii, Australia and Indonesia on Friday that he will use to 'highlight U.S.-Asian economic ties and the long-standing U.S. role in the region's security." (Aw, this is just another vacation! But, it's probably a good thing he will be out of the country because . . .) "His absence from Washington will coincide with a deadline for Congress to avoid a government shutdown, and a pivotal stretch of deficit-cutting negotiations that investors and credit-rating agencies will be watching closely." (This item was posted on Reuters by Laura MacInnis, WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 7, 2011 1:04am EST.)

Now for the not-so-good news:
Who are these "Occupy Everything" protesters. Who are they and what do they really want? Jobs? Not according to the protesters shown on the first video. As you can see, they really don't want to go to work and they have all kinds of excuses for NOT working: not enough money and against my principles seem to be their stock excuses. The only jobs they're interested in are CEO positions in the very big corporations they are protesting against! They want free college, free cell phones, free meals, "free" student loans, and they want the wealthy and middle-class hardworking citizens to "share" their hard-earned wealth with them. These protesters want to be "taken care of" -- by Big Government, by you, me, and our tax-dollars. These airheads want no responsibility, no job, and no accountability. I see them as just a bunch of lazy, selfish, dope-smoking spoiled kids who will never grow up and who have nothing better to do than sleep in the streets and vandalize any business within sight and smell of them. These fleabaggers have no respect for other people's property or the enormous problems our nation faces right now. All they are doing is making the economy tougher for all of the cities that now have to clean up after them. These fleabaggers are not productive; they are destructive. They think welfare and unemployment compensation are career choices.

It's time the President and other celebrity types, and the Liberal Media STOP encouraging the lawless behavior of these mobs. It's time for the DOJ to investigate move.on/ACORN/Soros and the union organizers who are responsible for throwing these lawless mobs in the face of law enforcement professionals of this country. This is not the Woodstock "fun" of the 60s; this bunch is turning violent and they need to be stopped. Now.

Please watch the video here, and the FOX news item at the end.

These videos speak for themselves.

Capitalists AGAINST Capitalism -- huh??

2011-10-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

Hear the hue and cry: OCCUPY WALL STREET! DOWN WITH THE CAPITALISTS! The rich have run this country into the ground! Make the wealthy pay! Big Profits and Big Wealth, Big Success and Big Corporations are BAD! They make TOO much money and they need to give us some! Share the wealth!

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Especially when you see the kids who are protesting. If they are actually students, why aren't they in class somewhere? Why are they wasting tuition money that came out of their parents' pockets in the first place from lucky capitalist's gain or, God forbid, hard work. These kids all seem to have cell phones and iPods and all the bells and whistles of rich kids spoiled by over-indulgent parents. Parents who are quite possibly old hippies who dream fondly of Woodstock, smoke too much weed, and never managed to grow up enough to understand the concept of responsible parenting and the value of teaching their kids work ethics. When you become a part of an entitled mob of spoiled brats who have been given everything you have ever asked for, you've never had to work for anything; pay for anything; ergo and therefore, there's no value to anything. Gimme, gimme, gimme!

It's amazing, isn't it, that celebrities who have made their fortunes in our capitalist system by actually working very hard are turning out in support of this rag-tag mob of lazy bums; the same lazy bums who want to take money from these same rich celebrities!? Celebrities, along with successful businessmen and women, are the "rich" these kids want Obama to tax and tax and tax in order to give them every entitlement from free college to free phones. Here are a few of the ignorant, hypocritical celebrities and their net worth. They are ludicrous, but here they are. Do they know what a joke they've become? (read more at www.celebritynetworth.com)

OCCUPY WALL STREET

Do young protesters actually take these morons seriously?

Flea Baggers; who would hire 'em??!

2011-10-27T17:59:00.000-05:00

Now that the "flea bagger" protests with all their ignorance, confusion, violence, and nasty mess littering public places are all the rage, the liberal media seems to just love 'em! Why? These liberals in the media are the same people who called anyone associated with the grassroots Tea Party such insulting names as Racists, Bigots, Terrorists, and Nazis -- and the insulting Gay Term, Tea Baggers. Liberal media types are enamored with the Flea Bagger mobs and actually say they represent the best of the young working class. Class? Workers? Really? Most Tea Party protests had to be held over the week-end so everyone could get back to work on Monday morning. These young misguided Fea Baggers do not work. Their expensive phones and camping gear are courtesy of their parents! These young idlers represent the entitled youth of America who want everything given to them from cradle to grave by Big Government. And those of us who have worked hard all our lives are the ones who have to clean up after them. This gallery of photos of each group side by side speaks for itself. I sincerely hope your young sons or daughters are not shown here among the great unwashed mob of Flea Baggers. You be the judge, the pictures speak for themselves.

That Same Ole Song

2011-10-16T12:03:00.000-05:00

History repeats itself again and again and again, when will we ever learn?

President Obama has done it again. He waited for the week-end to let us know he has sent US soldiers to Africa. To Uganda. What? That's right, Uganda. With Libya he hesitated and hesitated and finally kicked the can to NATO and promised there would be no American GI boots on the ground in Libya. (And, yes, we're STILL involved in that little mess!) So, for Uganda's horrible problems, did he call on the United Nations? Did he ask NATO to get involved? No. All he contributed was billions of our dollars to the Libya fray. But, here he is, ordering boots on the ground in Uganda. I guess the situation there "suddenly" become horrible enough to justify putting our young soldiers in harm's way. In Africa. Where is the threat to the USA in Uganda? What terrorist has he ordered the SEALs to "take out" there?

Well, friends, it is just more smoke and mirrors from this shuffle-handed incompetent we elected. He obviously never heard of Idi Amin and all the horror he created in Uganda years ago. There is nothing new there, the situation there has been awful for years. The names change but Uganda's problems remain the same. This is just another Obama campaign trick to muddy the waters of his failed presidency. He says we are only sending a hundred troops and they are not to engage in combat unless it is in self defense. How stupid is that? They're being dropped into a another country's war zone. Such danger automatically demands self defense. Did Obama ever read a history book at Harvard about Viet Nam? That fiasco started out with "just a few advisers" and in a few short years and 58,000 recklessly sacrificed American lives later, we lost the "non-war" in Viet Nam and pulled out. No honor in that. And far too many precious American lives lost, and for what?

Yet, here we under Obama's "leadership" setting out in the same misguided footsteps to disaster.

Check out this October 14, 2011 item from abcnews.go.com:

Obama Sends 100 US Troops to Uganda . . .

ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Luis Martinez report:
"Two days ago President Obama authorized the deployment to Uganda of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” – meaning capture or kill – Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA.
The forces will deploy beginning with a small group and grow over the next month to 100. They will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries.
The president made this announcement in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Friday afternoon, saying that 'deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.' He said that 'although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense.'”

Today, the United States military is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with more than 369,000 of its 1,580,255 active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories. Most of these overseas personnel are deployed in combat zones in the Middle east, as part of the "War on Terror". Many of the remainder are located at installations activated during the Cold War, by which the US government sought to counter the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II. U.S. personnel are seeing active combat in several countries, most notably Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya where the death toll has reached about 12000 more young Americans. Others are deployed as part of several "peacekeeping" missions. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments

I don't know what Obama is doing. Does he? Is he just stupid or is he following some secret agenda that neither Congress nor the taxpaying citizens of the USA know nothing about. It seems to me that every policy, every regulation, ever executive order coming out of this White House seems bent on destroying the United States of America. Our military is already spread too thin. We have already spent too much money on countries that have NO affection for our country (only our $$$'s) and we have certainly already paid too high a price in amazing young citizens who have lost limb and life on foreign soil. We have already lost too much and paid a price far too high for other country's benefit. It's time to bring our soldiers home.

It is time to get out of the Mid-East; take a lesson from Russia and get out of Afghanistan altogether; and leave Iraq in a position to defend their own new-found Democracy. Let's bring our awesome young troops home, protect our own borders. and let NATO and the United Nations do their jobs, in fact I agree with the late, great Jesse Helms who often said, "Get the UN out of the U.S. and get the U.S. out of the UN". No more "boots on the ground" risking life and limb in foreign countries whose citizens hate the U.S. anyway, and probably always will.

Let's bring them home,

there is nothing to win.

THE RUNAWAY TRUCK

2011-10-10T12:09:00.001-05:00

Friends imagine if you can, a large tractor trailer speeding downhill out of control. The driver is asleep at the wheel or unconscious. The speed is too fast for anyone to get on board to stop it. The hill gets steeper and steeper and the truck goes faster and faster. We all know that the rig is going to crash and the results are going to be catastrophic. There are only two scenarios possible, the driver wakes up and brings the big rig under control, or there will be a horrible crash. Well, our country is that big rig and it is surely on the wrong course and out of control. Are we headed for a catastrophic end? Can we only watch in dismay? Is the White House under Obama's socialist agenda the dispatch office with no way to stop the crash? He actually seems to WANT our economy to crash and burn. After all, that is the way of socialism: 1) First destroy the democracy, then 2) rebuild it to into a socialist dictatorship with the government controlling everything and everyone. Under socialism, there is no individual freedom, no wealthy, no poor, just one State where everyone is poor. History has proven to us time and time again that Socialism does not work.

Socialism at work.

Look at Greece today, and all the other European nations who are failing. Are we following in the same path?

In all my years, I have never been so worried about the future of our Republic. The sad truth is that all of the crooks, shysters, con-artists and self-serving greedy politicians in office today, from local school board to the White House, were voted into office by us. The media fell asleep -- or were bought and paid for by the likes of George Soros -- and we fell asleep at the wheel, too, and as a result our country is speeding downhill to destruction.

Have you ever asked why we keep electing millionaires? How could they possibly represent the common man? How many of them live from paycheck to paycheck? How many of them see the price of groceries doubling and tripling and have to worry about making their mortgage payment, doctor bills, or paying for new prescriptions, or even having enough money to buy enough gas to get back and forth to work? Hey, how many of them have to worry about finding a NEW job? I am not calling for class warfare, the wealthy earned their money, I'm talking about Politicians.We need to make them worry for a change! We need to insist on changes -- our changes -- on our terms. We must insist on term limits. Two terms; that's it! And stop the billion-dollar-campaign train. Limited campaign finance reform was passed into law but everyone ignores that, so let US insist that each candidate get a set amount of money, and that's it. Otherwise the trend continues with unions and special interests pulling the strings and NO ONE listening to what we, the people, have to say.

We need to insist on our new terms: Stop the spending, cut taxes and make taxes fair for all, rich and poor, and balance the budget in DC just like we have to do at our kitchen table every month. We MUST vett all candidates ourselves! We cannot depend on the media to do that for us. Get involved, join a group, write letters, call, FAX, or e-mail the White House and our "serving" representative and insist that they "serve" us instead of themselves!

Before and after---who is real?

2011-09-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

What seems like a hundred years ago many of us were romanced with the idea of a young man who was going to make our government work properly again. He was full of promise and hope for change. The only problem was he never said what the change was going to be. His idea of change was not what the people wanted but we were so blinded with hope that we fell into his trap. Now travel back in time with me and look at how the man has changed before our eyes. Now I must ask, was it all a sham, was the smiling face the real man or is the man we now see the real Obama? You be the judge.

This was the face presented to us during the 2008 campaign, all smiles and nice guy personality. A religious, church going man who loved his country. Then we found Reverend Wright and Van Jones and all the other goodies which came tumbling down like a house of cards. Below are the faces of the "now" Obama. Judge for yourself.

And the following picture says it all for me.

Two Presidents during a moment of silent prayer at the 9/11 Memorial Ceremony

How to make an earthquake.

2011-08-25T17:41:00.000-05:00

First off, let me thank you, my friends, for sending condolences on the recent passing of my father. He will always be my Hero and I miss him already.

I have never been one to follow conspiracy theories. While there may be some truth to some theories, by the time you sort through the supposition, innuendo and guesswork, it's hard to sort out the grains of truth that may well be there. Some of the conspiracies are fun to jaw over, but most are a waste of time. But, I do subscribe to an interesting web site (http://www.forbiddenknowledgeTV.com) which is primarily a scientific site, and I noticed this video on weather control which really got my attention. We are now watching hurricane Irene head towards the East Coast. Experts say it's a "monster" storm, the largest storm in decades, and the devastation will be historic. We all know the weather has been totally whacky this year and I have mentioned to friends jokingly that someone has a weather machine aimed at the USA. Well, guess what: Weather control is here. It is the act of manipulating or altering certain aspects of the environment to produce "desirable" changes in weather. Weather control can have the goal of preventing damaging weather such as hurricanes or tornadoes from occurring; or causing beneficial weather, such as rainfall in an area experiencing drought; or of provoking damaging weather against an enemy or rival, as a tactic of military or economic warfare. Weather modification in warfare has already been officially banned by the United Nations. Please watch this video from the History channel, stop a minute and ask what in the world is going on: Is our own government involved in weather control experiments, or worse yet, are our enemies capable of weather control? Please watch. (I have not altered this video in any way.)

Floods in ND from
abnormal snow melt

Drought in Texas.
Over 40 days straight
with over 100 degree
temperatures

Tsunami in Japan

Unusually violent and high number of tornadoes devastated our Midwest.

Flooded farmland in Iowa.
An enormous increase in flooding
all across the US.

And a 5.8 earthquake recently
shook up our East Coast.
Don't you find all of this just a bit strange?

In 1975, the US and Canada entered into an agreement under the auspices of the United Nations for the exchange of information on weather modification activity.

Weather control, particularly hostile weather warfare, was addressed by the "United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72, TIAS 9614 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques" was adopted. The Convention was signed in Geneva May 18, 1977; entered into force October 5, 1978; ratification by U.S. President December 13, 1979; U.S. ratification deposited at New York January 17, 1980.

In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulates weather control projects, under authority of Public Law 205 of the 92nd Congress.

2007 U.S. Senate Bill 1807 & U.S. House Bill 3445 Senate Bill 1807 and House Bill 3445, identical bills introduced July 17, 2007, proposed to establish a Weather Mitigation Advisory and Research Board to fund weather modification research

As I said before, there may well be a grain of truth in many conspiracy theories. Weather "control" has been a fact since 1975; time to take it as a serious threat?

The New Age of Espionage

2011-08-08T08:51:00.002-05:00

Misinformation has become the standard of our government. Remember the false body counts of our wars? Korea and Viet Nam were probably the worst for out-and-out lies by our elected officials. Do you know for sure if the moon landing was real or staged, as some believe? Do you know for sure what happened at Roswell? Are you really positively sure that Oswald was the one, the only one, who shot JFK? Many are not. Did you buy in to all the Obama rhetoric and lies? A great many still do. Do you believe all the FED's convoluted versions of what caused our economic meltdown? Can you believe what you see and hear from the alphabet-news-media that now seems to be completely State run?

We are coming to a new era in information gathering. There are so many cell phone cameras in use today that the news is recorded and reported many times before the media gets it and puts their own spin on it. Cities and towns have security cameras on every street corner and in banks, stores, bars and restaurants and just about any public place you can imagine. The information is recorded instantly and the bloggers post it immediately. That, my friends, is "intelligence gathering" at its best, and it is free for everyone to see. It's now possible to catch criminals in the act, and politicians, too! It's time we started paying attention to what these people are doing and confront them with the proof! I agree with Mr. Steele, we need to clean house, BIG TIME! Please watch this video; he makes sense. (The video has been edited for time but not for content.)

From ForbiddenKnowledgeTV, July 16, 2011

Intro by Alexandra Bruce

Robert David Steele Vivas is known for his promotion of open source intelligence (OSINT). He is a former United States Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer for twenty years and was the second-ranking civilian (GS-14) in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988 1992. Steele is a former clandestine services case officer with the Central Intelligence Agency.

He spent his early years, two decades, in Latin America and Asia as the son of an oil company executive. Steele has an BA in Political Science; an MA in International Relations; and an MPA in Public Administration. He resigned from the military in 1993.

Steele coined the terms "virtual intelligence" and "information peacekeeping." He argues that U.S. intelligence reform is needed, and that the private sector can perform a high percentage of U.S. open source intelligence needs and reduce cost to the U.S. government. He advocates "collective intelligence" or "the wisdom of the crowd" and hackers as a national resource.

OK I'm old...so what?

2011-07-26T12:23:00.004-05:00

An old shipmate and friend sent this to me and I would like to share it with you:

THIS IS US!
Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency of the modern world, real or imaginary. We always seem to be in the way, usually of a young person. We drive too slow. As we get older we get more stupid, or so they think. We have years and years of life experience, yet they tell us "you don't understand". They can't understand that we were young and stupid once also. Another fault we seem to have is that we take responsibility for all we have done and do not blame others. Old fashioned, I guess.

HOWEVER, upon reflection, we would like to point out that it was NOT the senior citizens who took . . .
The melody out of music,
The pride out of appearance,
The courtesy out of driving,
The romance out of love,
The commitment out of marriage,
The responsibility out of parenthood,
The togetherness out of the family,
The learning out of education,
The service out of patriotism,
The Golden Rule from rulers,
The nativity scene out of cities,
The civility out of behavior,
The refinement out of language,
The dedication out of employment,
The prudence out of spending,
The ambition out of achievement or
God out of government and school.

And we certainly are NOT the ones who eliminated patience and tolerance from personal relationships and interactions with others!

We understand the meaning of patriotism, and remember those who have fought and died for our country. Just look at the Seniors with tears in their eyes and pride in their hearts as they stand at attention and salute as Old Glory passes by.

YES, I'M A SENIOR CITIZEN!

I'm the life of the party . . . even if I only last until 8 p.m.

I'm very good at opening childproof caps . . . with a hammer.

I'm awake many hours before my body allows me to get up.

I'm smiling all the time because I can't hear a darn thing you're saying.

I'm sure everything I can't find is in a safe place, somewhere.

I'm wrinkled, slow and ache in muscles I never knew existed.

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for sissies.

Yes, I'm a SENIOR CITIZEN and it is what it is! I'm happy anyway!

Now if I could only remember who sent this to me . . .

Big difference.

Spread the laughter

Share the cheer

Let's be happy

While we're still here.

MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA

AND MAY AMERICA BLESS GOD!

Go Green - Recycle CONGRESS!

70 and counting

2011-07-09T11:13:00.001-05:00

Hey, I just turned 70! I find that amazing. When I was a young man I sort of walked on the wild side and the prospect of reaching 30 was questionable, but, here I am, a little worse for wear but still here. And the older I get, shouldn't I get equally wiser? Yet, the older I get, the more I realize how much I do NOT know. The world is changing so fast, I can hardly keep up with it because the changes seem to be taking so much away from what we once were as a great nation. As I reflect on what was and what is, I find myself feeling sorry for the young people of today. Our Government has turned into Big Brother and is a total mess. Our economy is in the toilet, and our education system has totally broken down. I recently watched an episode of Jeopardy and the contestants were middle school age. None of the contestants knew who Jefferson Davis was, they were unfamiliar with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our Revolutionary War. Just last week a local school was on the news for teaching elementary school students about "normal acceptance" of gay, lesbian, and cross-gender lifestyles. California schools are already teaching their kids how "normal" alternate lifestyles are. Meanwhile, academically, USA students rank 38th world wide. Friends, our education system has turned into a social engineering propaganda nightmare that we should all be ashamed of. (See my earlier blog Budget cuts 101 for my opinion on what might be wrong.) Once our students led the world in academic standings and now we have plummeted to 38th world wide. Back in the days when we were a world-class leader things sure were different. Today's TV shows, videos, computer games, movies and even cartoons are so gross, bloody and violent even an old squid like me can't stand to watch any of it!

Remember when kids rushed home to watch The Mickey Mouse Club? Remember watching the TV show, the Lone Ranger, who always caught the bad guys but never, ever killed a single bad guy?

Back then when our school system was the best in the whole wide world, we started each day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Our school band always played the National Anthem before sporting events, and prayer was allowed before each game. Students dressed neatly and were clean. The boys wore slacks properly and shirts, not wife beater T-shirts. The girls wore skirts and blouses or dresses, shorts were for gym class only. Jeans were for play time or after school. Schools were institutions of learning, not baby sitters for children of parents too busy to rear their own offspring. You know, there really was a "Last Great Generation" where honesty, moral character, faith, responsibility and hard work were the standards of being an American, and this is what our parents taught and instilled in us. The American dream was something we aspired to and worked hard for, knowing full well all dreams are just goals; not entitlement programs from Big Government. Some of us realized all our dreams, some of us got the important dreams right, and some of us failed. But we all had equal chances with a good education and hard work. Somewhere, somehow, things started to change. Maybe it was the idiocy of the Viet Nam War, public disobedience, hippies and beatniks, draft dodgers and Dr. Spock who gave the young kids a new mantra: "If it feels good, do it!" Children today are inundated with horrible gory gross violence on TV, on their computers, in their video games and even on cartoon shows. Our children are growing up immune to the horrors they see every day. Little wonder someone like Casey Anthony is set free by a jury that had obviously been CSI'd into numb inertia and moral indifference. Go figure! I have seen a lot in my 70 years and I wish I could say the changes have been good, but alas, many have not been good and the good old USA is in deep trouble. If we can't get a grip on what is happening to our country, our government and our young people, and get parents more involved in what their children are being taught, all is lost. Could America become a third world nation? You bet! Remember your history, all the great empires fell: the the Romans, the Greeks, the Ottoman Empire, Spain, Great Britain, and the list goes on. Take some free advice from a crotchety old squid, let's all get organized and take a stand together: Bring America BACK to its former Glory! This means taking a REFORM broom to Washington, DC, to sweep out all the greedy politicians who have sat idly by, filling their pockets while America's greatness has been allowed to dwindle away. Maybe if we all wield the voters' broom together we can even get NASA back up and running again! That's the least we can do to bring real hope and real dreams back into our kids' lives.

Happy Independence Day

2011-06-28T11:17:00.003-05:00

Freda and I have put together a short Fourth of July video. We hope you will all have a very nice and safe holiday weekend. Please enjoy the video and the holiday. We have once again used the song by Elvis since we find it so inspirational.

GUARD OUR FREEDOM WELL

Did you see this on the mainstream media?

2011-06-27T19:10:00.003-05:00

We have all seen how the mainstream media viciously attacks the Right. The MSM has become so blatantly liberal, the public has become practically immune to their continuously vitriolic propaganda against any and all Conservative Republicans. Remember all the MSM's incessant attacks against President G.W. Bush? We know G.W. does not deserve the stupid lout label constantly pasted on him by the MSM. The man, after all, mastered the task of becoming an awesome jet fighter pilot, and history will be far more favorable to the Bush presidency than they will be to the current embarrassment occupying the White House.

Lately, however, the MSM has gone too far; way over the line in their attacks against any and all female Conservative Republicans. Sarah Palin has actually gained fans because she has not only survived liberal media attacks, but actually looks really good next to the MSM's ignorant, mean, blatantly biased propaganda attacks against her. Now, Michele Bachmann has just entered the presidential campaign arena, and has already been labeled a "flake." Anyone remember any media attacks against Hillary when she was a presidential candidate? Was she above reproach because of her liberal, lesbian, bi-sexual coat of PC armor? Any happily married, conservative female politician is obviously considered "fair game" for the MSM mean machine. Too bad, they have not given ANY attention to all the obviously dumb remarks, ignorant utterances, and embarrassing mistakes made by our current chief politician.

Recently, a brilliant video produced by www.iowntheworld.com

showed the obvious differences between media coverage of Sarah Palin compared to coverage (or lack thereof) of Obummer the Obumbler. Thank you iowntheworld.com for giving me a great jumping off point for my shortened, edited version shared with you here. And because the Liberal MSM so enjoys their mean biased "fun" at someone else's expense, let's see how they like it when the brilliance of their fearless leader is put on display. Believe me you won't see this anywhere in the mainstream media. Enjoy.

www.iowntheworld.com

Memorial Day Tribute

2011-05-29T08:18:00.000-05:00

One day a year is set aside for the men and women who have answered the call to arms, stood tall and said "I will stand and fight for America". Where in the world would we be without their sacrifices? Although I am no longer able to attend the local services, Freda and I have assembled a short tribute to these great Americans. Please take a few minutes to watch and never let their memory fade. Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Coastguard, Marine and Merchant Marine, thank you and we will remember. One day is not enough.

That pesky little thing called "Racism"

2011-05-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

I think we all agree that racism is a terrible thing. As a nation, we have made painful, hard historical progress against the disgraceful practice of slavery in times long gone. As a people, both black and white, we have made honorable personal efforts to overcome racism in the USA. But that terrible human flaw remains still part and parcel of the fabric of our current political media-scape and I, for one, am getting pretty tired of it!

Name any group of immigrants to this nation, from Irish, to Jews, to Hispanics, Vietnamese, we have all been the brunt of mindless, thoughtless, ignorant, evil racism. The Democrats and the Obama administration seem to think only Black Americans have suffered from racism Now we see blatant name-calling of "racist" being used by the Democrats of the Far Left as a "new" form of political attack: A powerful weapon to be carried on the campaign trail. If you disagree with any of Obama's policies, you are tagged "racist." If you don't agree with any opinion of any Democrat, you are called a "racist" and the drive-by media and celebrities proudly "play the race card" against you!

The terms have become the weapons of choice in today's world. Where does it come from, I surely do not know, but I do know it is learned. There is a learning process from childhood that creates racists and bigots. Maybe we are all bigots to some degree, that is human nature and it cannot be legislated away. You can levy fines and arrest people for acts of bigotry and racism, but you cannot legislate against emotions. Maybe it's time to strip away all the veneers of plastic and lies of Obama style opaque transparency and find out where it is coming from. When any one is tagged over and over again as a racist, other people start to believe it! The lie, repeated often enough (shades of the Clintons!) is all too quickly perceived as the "truth."

I think it's time to look at who is throwing this awful slanderous term around so often these days. It's time to see who the real bigots and racists are today. Let's look at the following video to see just where this propaganda is coming from and I think you won't be surprised:

Do you hear the voices of Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Van Jones, and Malcolm X behind the shameful tirades in this video? Maybe Michele and Barack need to visit the poverty-stricken Native Indian reservations that still exist in our country, the storm-ravaged states of Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas to see real hard times! They both need a reality check! Stop the vacations and stay home, there is work to do. There are millions of poor people struggling in our country right now and we won't even go into how many elderly citizens live in poverty, people who worked all their lives and end up with nothing, so buck up and quit whining.

Yes, racism, bigotry and prejudice still thrive in our country and in fact it is worldwide. You cannot wish it away nor can you legislate it away. We can only keep fighting against it; not giving it any room to grow in our children's mind-set of acceptable behavior. How can we teach them, if our own leaders are such blatant instigators? Shame on them! They need to be role models, uniting our nation, bringing back our jobs and restoring our healthy economy -- not tearing us apart with this madness. Now, the next presidential election campaign has started (has it ever died down over the past two years?) and I believe it will probably be the dirtiest campaign in our history. Let's carefully consider the source of any "racist" tag slung during this next race and try to get past all the negativity, the hatred, the anger, the name-calling, and Chicago-style politics, and ask ourselves over and over again: Can we afford FOUR more years of this?

Obama dithered – Panetta Issued Order to Kill Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-08T14:06:00.001-05:00

Now the real story is slowly coming to the surface. What really happened prior to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. To gain a better perspective, here are great details revealed by Ulsterman in the Washington Insider.

Note: This update comes some 24 hours after our longtime Washington D.C. Insider first outlined shocking details of an Obama administration having been “overruled” by senior military and intelligence officials leading up to the successful attack against terrorist Osama Bin Laden. What follows is further clarification of Insider’s insights surrounding that event.

Q: You stated that President Obama was “overruled” by military/intelligence officials regarding the decision to send in military specialists into the Osama Bin Laden compound. Was that accurate?

A: I was told – in these exact terms, “we overruled him.” (Obama) I have since followed up and received further details on exactly what that meant, as well as the specifics of how Leon Panetta worked around the president’s “persistent hesitation to act.” There appears NOT to have been an outright overruling of any specific position by President Obama, simply because there was no specific position from the president to do so. President Obama was, in this case, as in all others, working as an absentee president.

I was correct in stating there had been a push to invade the compound for several weeks if not months, primarily led by Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, David Petraeus, and Jim Clapper. The primary opposition to this plan originated from Valerie Jarrett, and it was her opposition that was enough to create uncertainty within President Obama.

Hillary started the ball really rolling as far as pressuring Obama began, but it was Panetta and Petraeus who ultimately pushed Obama to finally act – sort of. Panetta was receiving significant reports from both his direct CIA sources, as well as Petraeus-originating Intel. Petraeus was threatening to act on his own via a bombing attack. Panetta reported back to the president that a bombing of the compound would result in successful killing of Osama Bin Laden, and little risk to American lives. But once again, Jarrett intervened, convincing the president that innocent Pakistani lives could be lost in such a bombing attack, and Obama would be left attempting to explain Panetta’s failed policy. Again Obama hesitated. It was at this time that Gates indicated to certain Pentagon officials that he may resign earlier than originally indicated – he was that frustrated. Both Panetta and Clinton convinced him to stay on and see the operation through.

What Valerie Jarrett and the president did not know is that Leon Panetta had already initiated a program that reported to him, and only him, involving a covert on the ground attack against the compound. Basically, the whole damn operation was already ready to go – including the specific team support Intel necessary to engage the enemy within hours of being given notice. Panetta then made plans to proceed with an on-ground assault. This information reached either Hillary Clinton or Robert Gates first (likely via military contacts directly associated with the impending mission) who then informed the other. Those two then met with Panetta, who informed each of them he had been given the authority by the president to proceed with a mission if the opportunity presented itself. Both Gates and Clinton warned Panetta of the implications of that authority, namely he was possibly being made into a scapegoat. Panetta admitted that possibility, but felt the opportunity to get Bin Laden outweighed that risk.

These are only excerpts from the three-page report, follow the link below to read the entire article. It will answer a lot of questions and once again showcase startling inadequacies of the man we call Mr. President, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he will take ALL the credit and campaign full-throttle on that credit.

Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/

AND A HUGE BRAVO ZULU TO OUR OWN TEAM 6

Bean Bags

2011-03-04T19:27:00.000-05:00

Since 2006 more than 35,000 people (including U.S. citizens) have been slaughtered in Mexico’s violent drug cartel wars. Yet Mexican President Calderon travels up to our White House to point his finger at us for all the violence and the deaths of U.S. citizens and U.S. Border Agents at the hands of illegal immigrants and drug cartels moving their violent war from Mexico up across our borders. It's all our fault, he says, with our hunger for Mexican drugs and all our guns that his criminals are using to shoot us!

And Obama stands there and agrees with him! At a joint press conference, Obama said security must be strengthened on both sides of the border “so that drugs flowing North or guns and cash flowing South -- that we are able at these points to intervene.” (I know this sentence makes no sense but this is exactly what he said.)

Obama pledged to help train and equip Mexican forces, even though there are restrictions on our own U.S. agents being armed while working across the border. Worse yet, he plans to spend about $500 million to carry out this naive scheme of his! Wow! How generous is this guy with our taxpayer dollars!?

Recently, U.S. ICE Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in Mexico, and sure enough one of the three firearms used in the ambush that killed him was traced back to Texas -- and guess where that gun really came from? (See links below re interview with BATF agent.) The U.S. is currently seeking extradition of the suspects in the ICE agent shooting.

Jill Torrance/Arizona Daily Star, March 3, 2011 Reports the following: "Border Patrol agents saluted their fallen fellow agent Brian Terry during his memorial at Kino Stadium Friday, January 21, 2011.

"Border Patrol agents shot beanbags at a group of suspected bandits before the men returned fire during a confrontation in a remote canyon. Agent Brian Terry was killed with a single gunshot in the back. An illegal immigrant wounded in the gun battle is the only person now in custody who is linked to the slaying. Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight." (What kind of crazy is that? Don't laugh -- these people are running your government!)

"Official documents provide the most detailed version yet of what happened in the deadly gun battle Dec. 14 in Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales. The documents say the group of illegal border entrants refused commands to drop their weapons after agents confronted them at about 11:15 p.m. Two agents fired beanbags at the migrants, who responded with gunfire. Two agents returned fire, one with a long gun and one with a pistol, but Terry was mortally wounded in the gunfight. Border Patrol officials declined to answer questions about protocol for use of force, citing the ongoing investigation."

Torrance further reports that Terry's brother, Kent Terry, said the other agents who were there that night told him that they were instructed to use the non-lethal beanbags first. It's a policy that doesn't make sense to Kent Terry. "You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out there with guns loaded with beanbags -- I don't get it," Terry said in a phone interview from Michigan. "It's like going to the Iraqi war with one knife. It boggles my mind . . . These guys (Border Patrol agents) are professionals; they should be able to use their judgment call on their own."

One has to look long and hard at the Obama Administration and try to figure out what is really going on. I sure don't know, but I'll bet my last dollar that it is not good for the United States. He has done everything in his power to discredit us with our friends and enemies. He seems determined to bring down our way of life in as many different ways as he can, as quickly as he can. And the apologetic way he treats complainers and anti-USA idiots like Calderone is just plain treasonous. He doesn't seem to have the cojones to stand up to Calerone and demand that he fix his own problems in his own country and stop blaming us for the drug cartel wars in Mexico.

Now this with the guns and the BATF connection. The agency knew of this and said nothing. Now our people are dying and we are at fault? Are we ever going to get fed up enough to demand this type of government will never again be allowed to operate within our borders? This is not acceptable. The murdered agents' families should file suit against the BATF for responsibility in the deaths of their loved ones. Or, better yet, sue Obama for dereliction of duty. As for Obama's $500 MILLION dollar plan, where the heck does Obama think he's going to dig up $500 M for that naive plan? If he's got $500 million just laying around the White House after all of Michelle's vacation trips, I say the best most effective plan would be to give Arizona and Texas those big bucks because we know Gov. Perry and Gov. Brewer will be able to keep their borders safe -- or, better yet . . .

Build The Damn Wall!

A Government Out Of Control

2011-02-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

Oil prices are skyrocketing up again and since everything is dependent on oil, everything is going up. Of course we all know who gets hurt: The middle class working family and fixed-income senior citizens. In other words, most of us. I don't know if you have noticed or not but this is the second year that retirees living on their lifelong working investment in Social Security have received NO cost of living raise. Have you gone without a pay increase over the past 2 years? Government employees did not. The government gave themselves a substantial raise. Senators and congressmen rake in an annual salary of about $174,000.00 and that doesn't include expense and other little perks such as riding for free on our Air Force jets, which probably all add up to much more than just their salary, figuring in junkets around the world for no good purpose whatsoever. Do I recall many experts warning our "Great Leader" that restricting oil drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska would have just this effect? Do I recall two judges declaring the moratorium on gulf drilling "un-constitutional"? Now Louisiana Federal District Court Judge Martin Feldman found the Obama Interior Department in contempt of his ruling that the offshore oil drilling moratorium, imposed by the administration in 2010, was unconstitutional. After Feldman struck down the initial drilling ban, the Interior Department simply established a second ban that was virtually identical. While the story was reported on Thursday by wire services like the AP and picked up by a few Internet news sites it seems all the top players in our lame-stream -- ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN -- all ignored the story altogether! Do I find that interesting? No, dammit, I find that un-acceptable! When a governing body sets itself ABOVE the law, there is NO law; only TYRANNY. We must not allow this kind of thing to pass without protest: Write letters, send e-mails, make phone calls to every one of your elected representatives in DC and make your displeasure heard. Knowing the chaos in Egypt will probably put the Suez Canal oil traffic in jeopardy, I must ask: Is our White House Administration deliberately tanking our economy? Is this administration just stupid, naive, greedy, or just totally unaware of the effects that these anti-oil-drilling, unconstitutional mandates will have on our already struggling economy? Something smells rotten about the whole Gulf Oil spill and how it was handled (or NOT handled), and I don't mean in Denmark.

As I have often stated before, such crap starts at the local level and goes up from there. Here is a little example from home:

Buncombe County, NC population 2009 census 231,452
Our beloved County Commissioners are paid $41,509 on average plus stipends; about 37% more than the average salary, including travel and technology expenses, for commissioners in much larger counties in North Carolina. Our erstwhile commissioners get $1300.00 per month to cover travel -- whether they drive or not. They get car and technology stipends regardless of whether they have those expenses, County Manager Wanda Greene said, and they do not have to file receipts showing how the money was spent.

They get taxpayer issued iPads and mobile phones and $350.00 per month as a "technology allowance".
.
The compensation package, along with base salary, makes them North Carolina's highest-paid county commissioners, according to a Citizen-Times analysis of pay data from the UNC School of Government.

Most county commissioners — all Democrats — defended the compensation packages last week as fair, even as the county considers budget cuts of 3-10 percent for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Records from 2001 show the chairman then got $250 every two weeks and commissioners got $200. They got $35 every two weeks to cover phone costs.

I hope your salaries have grown like that. Mine hasn't. Oh, and please note that these people have regular jobs besides their salary as elected county officials.

On today's news broadcast the commissioners have agreed that the pay is "a little out of line" and should be adjusted. When the news first broke in the Asheville Citizen Times on Feb 6 in an article by John Ostendorff, they all said the pay was fair and Bill Stanley even said he would not take "a penny less". Now what we have to do is clean house at the next election. Like I said, this is where it starts and this is where it must be stopped. Start at home.
.

Ritchie's Bike

2011-02-04T12:14:00.000-05:00

I'm fed up with politics and all the shuffling and shifting of positions trying to convince voters that the candidates aren't what we know they are. When are we no longer going to allow politicians to continuously lie and lie. We have "truth in advertising" laws, we have laws against perjury, why not in campaigning? Maybe if we had a law against politicians lying, we would have it a lot easier come election time, but then, Washington DC would probably be a ghost town. I thought I would take the time to remember a boyhood friend from a much simpler and slower time. No computers, cell phones or video games. Few had TV's and fewer had any money to waste on such foolishness. This was a time when the family sat around a big awkward radio (with glowing tubes) and listened to favorites like Boston Blackie, the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger, Our Miss Brooks. and Jack Benny. Families were much closer and did things together then. Not such a long time ago.

Ritchie Nesgoda was two years younger than me but we were friends and played together a lot. We

lived in Duluth, Minnesota on a one-mile peninsula of land stretching toward Superior, Wisconsin.

It was officially named Rices Point and reached toward Stevens Point, similar to two index fingers accusing the other. The St. Louis River flowed between and was spanned by the Interstate Bridge. The one avenue that ran the mile long Rices Point was called Garfield Avenue, so Garfield was also the name of the neighborhood. The avenue was bounded both sides by railroad yards, grain elevators, piers, and scrap yards. It was a wonderful place to grow up. There was no end to the mischief little boys could get into. In those days we had to pretty much come up with our own toys; there was no K-Mart, Walmart, Toys R Us or discount stores so well known now for the brightly colored plastic toys made mostly in China. Fact is, no one on Garfield had the money to spend on toys, so we made do with what we could find and there was no shortage of imaginative games to play.

One day Terry and Guy Juneau and I were playing in the alley behind the Tip Top Tavern when Ritchie came riding up on an old beat up bicycle with no fenders or chain guard. The frame was rusted and the pedals were missing the rubber so all that was left was the metal shaft. It was a beauty.

It seems that Bobby, who was Ritchie's older brother swapped a little dog he had found for the bike for Ritchie. It appears that both boys thought they got the best of the deal. Ritchie was so proud of his new steed, he rode up and down the alley while the rest of us looked on in envy. After a while Ritchie started to take pity on the rest of us and decided he would let us ride the magic vehicle for a nickle a ride. Great idea except for one little problem. We couldn't scrape together five cents between the three of us, so Ritchie came up with a solution. He would let us ride on credit. For the rest of the summer we had the greatest time, pant-legs rolled up taking turns riding Ritchie's bike. By the next summer all of us had bikes of one sort or another, usually used but some new. Poor Ritchie never collected a single nickle. Funny how childhood friends hold such warm places in our hearts even though I never saw any of them after I joined the service years later. I often wondered about Ritchie and Bobby, then one day my father sent me a news clipping.

May 10, 1987

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Here, as released by a spokesman for the Polish airline LOT in New York, is a partial list of those killed Saturday in the crash of a Polish jetliner. It includes those that the Polish Foreign Ministry lists as U.S. citizens and those listed as Poles with permanent residency abroad.

Robert Leonard Nesgoda

Richard Joseph Nesgoda

It seems they took a trip to Poland to visit family. A trip that should have been great fun for those two, ended in tragedy. My heart goes out to the Nesgoda family with many thanks for some great memories.

Volkman VS Obama--------Round two?

2011-01-22T13:38:00.003-05:00

This has been a very busy time of year; especially for those trying to diminish our Constitutional rights. If you doubt this, take a minute or two to ponder the following.

Jacob Volkmann was born in Henning, Minnesota, and graduated from Henning High School there. He wrestled for the Otter Tail Central Bulldogs and holds the schools all-time record for career wins. In 20004, Volkmann graduated from the University of Minnesota where he was a Big Ten Conference wrestling champion and a three-time NCAA All American. Today, Volkmann is a busy, hardworking young man. He runs a chiropractor firm, is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, and also helps coach the wrestling team at White Bear Lake High School in Minnesota.

On October 2, 2010, it was announced that Volkmann would fight former MFC lightweight champion, Antonio McKee, at UFC 125. Volkmann won the fight. After the fight during a taped interview, Volkmann jokingly said that he wanted to fight U.S. President Barack Obama because as a healthcare professional he has already seen the damage imposed upon his business by ObamaCare and he fervently disagrees with Obama's healthcare policies, saying, "Someone needs to knock some sense into that idiot." That statement resulted in a visit from the U.S. Secret Service, and Volkmann was also immediately placed on administrative leave by the White Bear Lake High School.

The commotion over his comments resulting in Volkmann appearing on several national TV shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Inside Edition, and the Fox Business Network. The UFC lightweight fighter, who was put on paid administrative leave by the high school following his comments about Obama, told MMA Fighting this week that he was invited back to the school on Wednesday . . . under certain conditions such as, "no disrespectful name calling during interviews (like idiot, moron and terrible words like that); he can't wear school clothing during interviews" . . . and there are a few other such insipid "rules". SO MUCH FOR FREE SPEECH.

Volkmann receives a yearly salary of $1800.00 for coaching the high school wrestling team. WOW! How about those Hollywood Liberal Air-Heads, Rev. Wright, our own former president Carter, political pundit talking-heads on CNN, and all those "progressive" liberal Professors who tear down our country and our government, constantly spewing out their damning USA rhetoric that often borders on treason? No smack-downs there! No suspensions there. Collectively, don't you wonder how much that are all paid for the "work" they do? Just askin' . . .

A while back a Congressman was punished for yelling out "you lie" during a speech to Congress by Obama. He was coerced into apologizing, not for being wrong (which he wasn't), but for speaking the words out loud. SO MUCH FOR FREE SPEECH.

The way I look at it, when someone yells out "you lie" in a room full of politicians, who knows who he is talking to, eh?!

How many times lately have we all called any and all politicians and even a president or two over the years as a liar -- or worse? We are dissatisfied with Obama and his czars and his minions in Congress and what they are doing to our country; they are ignoring us and telling us we don't matter. It is human nature to get angry and say things, funny things, angry things, and insults out of pure frustration. In our country, it is NOT a crime to criticize our government, it is our duty and our right. In fact it is the very first of our rights as the First Amendment to the Constitution. We must speak out to those who would destroy or eradicate our rights. We must be ever vigilant and protect those rights like a "mother grizzly" -- pun definitely intended.

You can check out the entire "troublesome" interview with Volkmann at the following web site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubI06am5zd4

Sarah Palin did not shoot anyone!

2011-01-20T12:45:00.008-05:00

We’re being brainwashed by the media! Why?

When I first heard the news about the shooting in Tucson, my heart stopped – just as it had the day I first heard similar horrific news from Columbine, and then from Fort Hood. Cable news, as always, pounced on this latest tragedy and that’s all we heard all day from the media with far more alacrity than facts! As the news spun on and on, I kept hearing Sarah Palin’s name mentioned more and more often from the media. Why? “ What on earth,” I kept asking myself, “did Sarah Palin have to do with this dreadful shooting? It was some deranged man who did this; not Sarah Palin!”

And now, many newscasters, political pundits and politicizing sheriffs later – I am still asking myself the same question: What did Sarah Palin have to do with it? When John McCain first announced Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate, no one had ever heard of her. As that particular campaign wore on, a family friend was telling us that he had joined a support group for Sarah Palin. My first reaction was: “But, she’s dumb as a post!” The shocked look on our friend’s face told me immediately that I had offended him. I was surprised myself at my own rude outburst! Where had that come from? How could I carelessly offend such a good friend; a friend whom my husband and I both know to be a fine Christian man? He's an amazing friend who came to our rescue without even being asked to during last winter’s awful snow storm with its 5-day power outage that shut down my husband’s oxygen machine, leaving him perilously close to running out of spare oxygen tanks. Our friend got himself out of a warm bed, borrowed a neighbor's Hummer, made his way through all the snow and ice over virtually impassible country roads to bring a huge emergency oxygen tank to our rescue! And here I was being a jerk; being rude to him over his personal choice of a political candidate. Where did my dumb, stupid, rude, mean outburst come from?!

Indeed, I had to figure it out for myself as I consciously listened much more closely to all the news – from CNN to FOX, radio, and Internet as well. Where had my anger come from? Where had my opinion of Sarah Palin come from? I have to confess that after all my research I had to admit it: I had been brainwashed! The news blaring along in the background of my home life had seeped into my subconscious somehow. It became obvious that the media just did not like Sarah Palin. Why? Why wage such an insipid HATE campaign against this tiny little Mom and working Governor of Alaska? She could have easily been glorified – just as the press so obviously did for other candidates. Why the hate campaign against Sarah Palin? Why? Surely not just because she is a woman? Surely not because she holds strong conservative family values? Surely not because she believes in the tenets of the Republican Party? And surely not because she is not a Harvard Blue Blood Elite; just a working Mom, raising a family while serving as Governor of the big state of Alaska? And surely not because she is obviously very strong in her religious beliefs?

Well, after spending a lot of time with this personal research project of mine, I can report back to you, my friends, that this one sentence sums it all up; tells you WHY there is a hate campaign still being waged against Sarah Palin by the media:

Sarah Palin is a Patriotic Conservative Republican Family Woman of Faith.

Yep, my friends, that’s it; that's exactly what she claims to be, and in all honesty IS. And that's why she's under attack. You may agree with every hateful word spoken against Sarah Palin, but for Heaven’s sake, make sure THAT is your own opinion! Make sure you have not been brainwashed. If you do not like Sarah Palin for any political reason or for any “personal” reason, please just make sure that it’s your reason for not liking her; and not the hate propaganda we’ve all been force- fed by the media. Read her books. Please. Read “Going Rogue” to see for yourself that even some of the Republican campaign people were moles (or something even more despicable than that) who set about to undermine Sarah right along with the liberal media! (Where were you John McCain when all that sniping was going on?) And please read “America By Heart” to come to your own conclusions about Sarah. I’m just asking you to be fair, read her books, ask your own questions, and come to your own conclusions. And, please, do not have the news on all day as background noise in your home or workplace! When you do consciously tune into the news, please keep your mind attuned for truth, not just someone else’s opinion. That’s not news. That’s propaganda. We do not need any more hateful propaganda in the United States of America.

This blog was drafted and posted by Freda E. Barry